The invention relates to the field of etch-stop material systems on monocrystalline silicon.
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) form the bridge between conventional microelectronics and the physical world. They serve the entire spectrum of possible applications. MEMS include such varied devices as sensors, actuators, chemical reactors, drug delivery systems, turbines, and display technologies. At the heart of any MEMS is a physical structure (a membrane, cantilever beam, bridge, arm, channel, or grating) that is “micromachined” from silicon or some other electronic material. Since MEMS are of about the same size scale and, ideally, fully integrated with associated microelectronics, naturally they should capitalize on the same materials, processes, equipment, and technologies as those of the microelectronics industry. Because the process technology for silicon is already extensively developed for VLSI electronics, silicon is the dominant material for micromachining. Silicon is also mechanically superior to compound semiconductor materials and, by far, no other electronic material has been as thoroughly studied.
A wide array of micromachined silicon devices are fabricated using a high boron concentration “etch-stop” layer in combination with anisotropic wet etchants such as ethylenediamine and pyrocatechol aqueous solution (EDP), potassium hydroxide aqueous solution (KOH), or hydrazine (N2H2). Etch selectivity is defined as the preferential etching of one material faster than another and quantified as the ratio of the faster rate to the slower rate. Selectivity is realized for boron levels above 1019 cm−3, and improves as boron content increases.
It should be noted that etch stops are also used in bond and etch-back silicon on insulator (BESOI) processing for SOI microelectronics. The etch-stop requirements differ somewhat from those of micromachining, e.g., physical dimensions and defects, but the fundamentals are the same. Hence, learning and development in one area of application can and should be leveraged in the other. In particular, advances in relaxed SiGe alloys as substrates for high speed electronics suggests that a bond-and-etch scheme for creating SiGe-on-insulator would be a desirable process for creating high speed and wireless communications systems.